


Her Three Presents

by KrysKrossZee



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Birthday, Birthday Presents, F/M, Fluff, Grief/Mourning, POV Female Character, POV Hermione Granger, POV Third Person, Past Remus Lupin/Nymphadora Tonks, Remus Lupin Lives, Single Parent Remus Lupin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:53:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26525524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrysKrossZee/pseuds/KrysKrossZee
Summary: Hermione receives some hair ribbons as a present after making it clear that she doesn't want anything for her birthday at all. This is only the first of three presents....
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Remus Lupin
Kudos: 38
Collections: Hermione's Birthday Soirée 2020





	Her Three Presents

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Hermione's Haven for hosting this mini fest and for giving me my first Remione prompt. I enjoyed seeing a different side to both characters.
> 
> Thanks to SethWren for betaing.

Ribbons. Someone nameless had bought her ribbons for her birthday. Hermione wasn't a particularly materialistic person but that seemed like such a strange gift for someone of nineteen to receive. It would have made more sense if she'd been eight, but those days were long gone. 

Regardless of her confusion over this age-inappropriate gift, she still found herself twisting them around her hands and in between her fingers as she looked at herself in the mirror that September morning. It really was tempting to actually do her hair and put them in, that way she might even find out who had sent them to her in the first place.

She'd made a point of telling everyone that she didn't want any presents this year in the first place. There were people still grieving over the heavy losses that they had suffered at the hands of Voldemort, it had felt selfish to expect any presents at all.

And her someone had gone to the trouble of choosing these ribbons for her and wrapping them in delicate tissue paper packaging. She couldn't find it in her to reject the gift so she had sent the owl off on its way. It felt just as selfish to even consider giving them back to the person now.

She brushed her hair back away from her face and proceeded to plant the ribbons in before she made her way down to the kitchen where she expected to be able to make her coffee in peace. Harry was at the Burrow meaning that she had been left at Grimmauld Place with Remus - who had been up most of the night with a colicky Teddy.

Ordinarily, she didn't mind living with the man and his child, but it was times like that that she could see he was struggling and she wished he would take the help that Andromeda so badly wanted to give him. The problem was that Remus was three times as stubborn now that he was both a widow and a single father. Hermione couldn't blame him for this, in fact, no-one with half a brain could blame him, but it did make him exceptionally difficult to help in any shape or form - except on full moon nights when he had no choice.

Hermione hadn't expected to find a zombified version of her ex-teacher in the kitchen anyway. She had thought that she had the house to herself until Harry came back, with the Weasleys in tow for what promised to be an enjoyable evening of board games and drinks. She wasn't upset that he wasn't hiding in his room, but she wasn't exactly thrilled to have him interrupt the day that she had planned for herself either.

"Morning." She managed to say when she finally managed to get herself to get a grip. Throwing a tantrum about this wouldn't help either of them and would probably prove to her gift giver that she was, in fact, eight years old.

"Morning," Remus mumbled as he took a seat at the table, clearly intending to stay for a while, which Hermione told herself was absolutely fine as she made herself a cup of coffee.

She turned to lean on the kitchen counter as she wrapped her hands around her hot mug. That was definitely one thing that she missed about living at the Burrow - it was always warm there, whereas Grimmauld Place was always freezing. Sometimes she wondered if it was cold because it was haunted; not by ghosts because no ghost was stupid enough to hang about there but by the bad energy that it's previous residents had left behind.

"Teddy asleep?" She asked after a few moments of silence that she realised she needed to be the one to break as he didn't look fit enough to even form words just then, let alone sentences that made sense.

Remus nodded, his eyes fixed on the table for a moment before he slowly looked up. "Yeah. Finally." He paused for a moment before he appeared to swallow thickly. "And before you say I should be too, I'm going soon. I just wanted to see you first."

Hermione couldn't help but frown slightly at that as she tried to work out why he would want to see her. Her birthday had to be at the bottom of his list of priorities, surely? But as her eyes met hism, she wasn't so sure about that. He didn't appear to be so sure either and she didn't know what to make of that.

"You wanted to see me?" She repeated, an eyebrow lifting slightly as she moved to sit down on the bench opposite him.

"Uh. Yeah." Remus reached out for an envelope that she hadn't even noticed until then. "I wrote your letter of recommendation."

Hermione couldn't help but blink rapidly at that. She had asked him to write her a letter, but she hadn't expected him to give it to her the very next day. She couldn't even officially apply for the teaching position until the end of the month anyway, it was just that McGonagall had given her a heads up so that she knew that she couldn't apply.

"I - thank you." She said with a small smile as she took the letter from him and smoothed it out on the table. "Now, time for you to go and get some shuteye before you're interrupted by the rabble."

"Hermione." There was something far too serious about the tone of Remus' voice. It sent chills down her spine but she forced herself to keep her eyes on his gaze, forced herself to listen to him as he continued. "There's something else. And I don't want you to overthink this because there's a chance that it's just my sleep deprivation and grief talking, plus I've done enough overthinking for both of us about this."

"What's going on, Remus?" She asked slowly as she watched him stand up and make his way around the edge of the table. He walked towards her and slowly extended a hand to help her stand up. She took the offered hand and let him pull her to her feet, all the while remaining completely confused.

"The third part of our birthday present, I hope," Remus said softly, his fingers touching the ribbons in her hair before he slowly leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to Hermione's lips.

The brunette's eyes shot open wide but it was over as quickly as it had started and she was left wondering if she had simply imagined the whole thing as Remus was now heading out of the kitchen and out of sight. Her own fingers went to her ribbons as she realised that it must have been him that had bought them for her. She shook her head slightly as she sat back down with her coffee.

This really was a strange sort of birthday, and not just because of the losses that they had all suffered. It wasn't one that she was going to forget in a hurry though, and while it had felt as if she was betraying Tonks' memory in admitting so, she had enjoyed that kiss, it had to be one of her most favourite birthday presents that she had ever received. And that was _without_ overthinking it.


End file.
